IHC

[xbiffox]

have to say ur talking crap lone shark,if lads like you are leading this website its time to be avoiding it.if thats ur opinion then maybe offaly should drop down to christy ring because all they are doing is winning 1 game every year to avoid relegation

[GreatDayForTheParish]

have to say ur talking crap lone shark,if lads like you are leading this website its time to be avoiding it.if thats ur opinion then maybe offaly should drop down to christy ring because all they are doing is winning 1 game every year to avoid relegation

For the reasons already mentioned I too believe that senior should be reduced to 10 clubs. Really some of the clubs currently there would be intermediate in any other county. Look at Kilkenny, Tipperary and the competitive nature of their intermediate divisions; rarely does a 'B' team from a senior club win it. Such a situation would, I believe, be desirable in Offaly.

I can see the hypocrisy in our attitudes, though, in that we all feel that Christy Ring is somehow 'beneath' Offaly when we've been no more competive in the McCarthy Cup for the last 9 years than Drumcullen were in the Senior championship. Strange isn't it? However accusing someone of 'talking crap' is not the best way to frame an argument xbiffox.

[joe bloggs]

i didnt know wether to laugh or cry when i saw lads suggestn we hav 10 senior teams,there by meaning 2 teams gettin relegated and palying at intermediate level,maybe skenagh should be playing at that level but only because they have lost alot of players down through the years,very little loyalty it seems in that club...they did well to win the intermediate last year but appear out of their depth,after skenagh there is no other team that ya could say arent good enough for senior and lads would want to sit back and think why they would only want 10 senior teams,goes to show how much lads know.we are trying to promote hurling,well we should be anyway and relegating teams is not the answer and only a fool could suggest that.every senior game i have been at this year has been competitive,no team wants to lose a championship game so this idea of making it 10 teams to make it more competitive is a load of bull

If you think having a large number of senior teams would improve the county team you are misguided. I would be all for it if the standard was there but it is not and i can tell you that as someone who has played at both senior and intermediate in recent years. The more teams you put into a championship without any realistic chance of winning the worse it will get. Players find it harder to commit if they think they have no hope in succeeding. Just look at the AI hurling championship where at the moment only a few teams have realistic expextations of triumph.
How must a young fellow feel in a weaker senior club team when starting out and all they are hoping each year is to avoid relegation and cant even hope of reaching a county final?
In the 90's when we were going strong only five or six clubs were really making up the county team so its quality not quantity thats important. But at that time we had a much more competitive championship. Also playing Intermediate hurling is not a barrier from playing at intercounty level (just ask our current captain) in any county, so even if a few more of our inter county panel were to find themselves there it would be no great problem as county players spend most of the seaon training and playing with the county team.

[Lone Shark]

have to say ur talking crap lone shark,if lads like you are leading this website its time to be avoiding it.if thats ur opinion then maybe offaly should drop down to christy ring because all they are doing is winning 1 game every year to avoid relegation

First up, there's no-one "leading" this website. It's a discussion forum and all opinions are welcome. You say that more teams at senior level is better, but you don't say why, except so that certain clubs can go around talking about being senior.

If we were to have a ten team senior championship, it's safe to say that Ballyskenach would be intermediate, while based on the form this year so far, one of Tullamore, Shinrone or Lusmagh would be joining them. Now realistically not one of those clubs has a prayer of winning a county championship this year. Tullamore played Birr last night and the report I got from a Birr man about the game was that Birr were useless, loads of their big names weren't tuned in at all, and yet they still won by eight points without ever being under pressure. Now I understand that Birr are something of an exception in Offaly in that they are one of the top five clubs in Ireland playing in a championship where you'd probably struggle to find another club in the top 50, but even so how is Tullamore hurling being helped by this?

On the other hand, if we had a ten team intermediate championship comprised of the six teams in the knockouts along with two current senior clubs plus maybe Carrig & Riverstown and Drumcullen, well that would be a good competitive championship where no game could be taken for granted. Surely that would be better for teams to be involved in than senior championships where two or three games every year are a write off?